Torta Pasticciotto

Don’t be put off by its rustic appearance…La Torta Pasticciotto is really very good….great with a cuppa!!

Ingredients

For the Filling
2 egg yolks
2 rounded dessert spoons sugar (castor)
2 rounded dessert spoons plain flour
Large shaving lemon rind
¼ litre milk
Black Cherries

For the pastry
300g flour
150g sugar (granulated)
150g unsalted butter or lard
1 egg & 1 egg yolk
Pinch sale
Grated lemon rind
½ tsp baking powder

1. Put the egg yolks and sugar (in the UK I would use castor sugar but here we don’t really find it) in a saucepan and beat them with a wooden spoon until it is pale frothy. Add the flour slowly stirring constantly.
2. Slowly add the warm (not hot) milk and stir in incorporating all the ingredients making sure there are no lumps.
3. Add a large slither of lemon rind, avoiding the white of the lemon.
4. Then put the saucepan on a low heat and cook stirring constantly making sure you always stir in the same direction, until the sauce becomes dense. Put aside to cool.
5. Mix together all the ingredients for the pastry – making it into a dough. I would use granulated sugar here. Make into a ball then put in the fridge to rest for 30 mins wrapped in cling film.
6. Roll out half of the pastry to line the inside of a greased cake tin, 24cm in diameter.
7. Fill with the cooled cream (remember to remove the piece of lemon rind) and a few de-stoned black cherries.
8. Cover with the rest of the pastry closing the edges well and brush with egg yolk.
9. Cook in a preheated oven at 180°C for an hour.
10. The smaller “pasticciotti” versions are made with small oval moulds and are filled with just the cream.

A Bit About the Torta Pasticciotto

This is something not found anywhere else, not even in Italy. It is very specific not only to Salento, but to Lecce itself. After a visit to my boyfriend’s family, I used to take a tray of the smaller “single portion” pasticciotti back to the office in Milan for my Italian colleagues. They raved about them, having never heard of or seen them. I decided to get the recipe and make the pie at home in Milan, much to the delight of my Lecce boyfriend. They can be found in any “pasticceria” in Lecce. A little bit of patience is needed to make the filling but it’s well worth it in the end. I know it’s not really Italian but it is so good with a nice cuppa (something I will never give up!!).

The name of the inventor and precise history of the pasticciotto has been lost over the years but it is known that the pie was invented first, but with a sweet ricotta filling which was subsequently replaced with the local “crema pasticcera” (cake cream). Then, when bars started to emerge, the single portions started to appear. The look of these, apparently, has not altered in the last 100 years. However, within the last 10 years or so other smaller versions have sprung up to meet the demands of those watching their figure!

Just an additional note, the crema pasticcera (cake cream) in the South is very different from that of the North which is more like our custard.